The Promise of the Father

With the outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, the blessings for all nations promised to Abraham commenced.

The Apostle Paul calls the Gift of the Spirit the “Promise of the Father,” and he links the promised Gift to the Abrahamic covenant. The promises to Abraham and “his Seed” find their fulfillment in the New Covenant inaugurated by the Death and Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

No longer are Gentile believers “alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise.” By his shed blood, Christ has dismantled the “middle wall of partition” that previously separated Jews and Gentiles.

[Photo by Marc Zimmer on Unsplash]

The bestowal of the Gift of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost marked the start of the era of fulfillment. Gentile followers of the Messiah and Son of God become heirs of the Patriarch, “children of Abraham,” coheirs with Jesus, and members of God’s One People.

The Gift of the Spirit is an essential part of the Good News of God’s Kingdom. The God of Abraham has provided the means to reconcile men from every nation to Himself, and to one another, and the power to walk in “newness of life” through the Spirit that now dwells in all those who now “deny themselves, take up the Cross,” and follow the Lamb “wherever he leads.”

Paul identified the “Promise of the Spirit” with the “Blessings of Abraham.” The original covenant always envisioned the inclusion of the nations, a point Paul used when exhorting Jewish believers to accept Gentiles in the Covenant Community without circumcision or the other deeds and rituals required by the Mosaic Law. Membership in God’s People is based on faith and obedience, not anyone’s ethnicity.

All men and women who belong to Jesus become “Abraham’s heirs according to promise.” The old distinctions between “Jew and Gentile” no longer apply in the Church of Jesus Christ, and the inclusion of the Gentiles was never an afterthought or later adjustment to the Abrahamic Covenant - (Genesis 12:1-3, Galatians 3:1-14, 3:29):

• “In whom, you also are hearing the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also believing, were sealed with the Spirit of the promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance, for the redemption of the acquisition, for his glorious praise” - (Ephesians 1:13-14).

The Gift of the Spirit is the “earnest,” the “down payment” that guarantees our participation in the inheritance when Jesus returns. The references in the Book of Ephesians to “inheritance” and “acquisition” allude to the territory promised by God to Abraham - “I will give to you and your seed all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession” - (Genesis 17:8).

Paul connects the Gift of the Spirit to the Abrahamic Covenant, including its promise of territory. Likewise, Jesus labeled this gift the “Promise of the Father.”

Before his Ascension, Christ commanded his disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received the Spirit. Only then would they become his “witnesses to the uttermost parts of the Earth” and take his Gospel to every inhabited corner of the Earth under the guidance and empowerment of the Spirit - (Luke 24:49, Acts 1:4).

GOD’S PROMISES FULFILLED

In his sermon on the Day of Pentecost, Peter declared that the outpouring of the Spirit was according to the prophecy in the Book of Joel - “In the last days, God will pour out His Spirit on all flesh.” The final period, the “Last Days,” was underway, an era that will continue until the moment Christ returns - (Genesis 17:7-10, Joel 2:28-32, Acts 2:38-39).

The Gift of the Spirit is how men and women receive the “Blessings of Abraham.” By the Spirit, men from every nation find themselves blessed with faithful Abraham, heirs of the promises and equal members of the Covenant Community - (Genesis 12:3, Acts 3:25, Romans 4:13).

The fulfillment of the promises began with the outpouring of the Spirit in Jerusalem. Since then, everyone who receives the Spirit becomes a “child of Abraham,” and therefore, the old boundaries between Jew and Gentile are completely inappropriate in the single People of God - (Galatians 3:27-29).

The Mosaic legislation anticipated the need for something beyond the Law. The Torah could not complete what God began with Abraham. Inevitably, the nation of Israel violated the Covenant.

However, after chastisement and repentance, Israel would “return to Yahweh and obey His voice,” and He would gather His people from all nations and “circumcise their hearts to love Him” - (Deuteronomy 30:1-6).

The themes of renewal and the circumcision of the heart were taken up centuries later by the prophet Jeremiah. God intended to “make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” It would not be like the covenant made at Sinai. With the arrival of the Spirit, God began to write His laws on the hearts of His people, and the promised circumcision of the heart has become reality for Jews and Gentiles alike in the Body of Christ - (Jeremiah 31:31-34, Hebrews 8:6-13).

The Book of Ezekiel added the aspect of the Spirit to the coming “New Covenant.” When Yahweh gathered the children of Israel, He would put “a new spirit” in them, and thereby, He would “cause them to walk in His statutes.”

The Book of Ezekiel combines the promises of the Spirit, the circumcised heart, and the New Covenant, making the Covenant promises dependent on the receipt of the Spirit by the people of God - (Ezekiel 36:16-28, 37:25-28, 2 Corinthians 3:1-6).

Thus, the Apostolic Tradition preserved in the New Testament links the promise to Abraham with the Gift of the Spirit, and this is granted freely to Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus. Moreover, it labels it the “Promise of the Father” and the “Blessing of Abraham.”

The Gift of the Spirit is the identifying mark of the one People of God. The Spirit empowers believers to walk in the New Covenant, fulfill the “righteous requirements of the Law,” proclaim the Gospel to the “uttermost parts of the Earth,” and to continue doing so until Jesus arrives “on the clouds of Heaven” and gathers his people, all of them, Jews and Gentiles alike.

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SEE ALSO:

• The Spirit is Life! - (The Spirit of God imparts life, especially the everlasting life of which the Gift of the Spirit is the foretaste and guarantee)

• The Life-Giving Spirit - (Jesus dispenses the Life-Giving Spirit without which there is no enduring life. His words are spirit, and they are life)

• The Circumcised Heart - (The promise of the Spirit is integral to the redemption of humanity and the Covenant of God with His people)

• Héritiers de l'Alliance - (Avec l'effusion de l'Esprit le jour de la Pentecôte, les bénédictions promises à Abraham pour toutes les nations ont commencé)